About Richard Raskin

Born in Brooklyn in 1941 and presently residing in Denmark, Richard Raskin’s main interest has been in short film storytelling. For more than 30 years, he taught students at Aarhus University the art of making short films. He has served on juries and lectured at international film festivals, is the founding editor of Short Film Studies published in the U.K., has written books and articles about the short film, co-founded a school called Multiplatform Storytelling and Production, and wrote the script for an award-winning short film, Seven Minutes in the Warsaw Ghetto.
by Richard Raskin | 5 January, 2021 | Film History, Filmmaking
On October 30th 2000, President Bill Clinton signed into law Bill HR 3710, fully exonerating Navy Captain Charles B. McVay. McVay had been unfairly blamed for the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in 1945 and for the deaths of hundreds of crewmen. His court-martial...
by Richard Raskin | 21 December, 2020 | Directing, Film History, Filmmaking, Filmmaking Career, Producing, Promotion, Marketing and Distribution, Screenwriting, Technical Craft
The short film is an art form in its own right. Many of its storytelling properties differ from those of the feature film. It is typically under 10 min. long. The shorter the better. It should not be confused with the 25-40 min. graduation films made at film schools...
by Richard Raskin | 16 December, 2020 | Directing, Filmmaking, Filmmaking Career, Screenwriting
Without ego there would be no art, no motivation to take on the challenges and to seek the rewards of creating original work. Jackie Gleason, best remembered for creating and starring in The Honeymooners – one of the first and most successful sitcoms in television...
by Richard Raskin | 27 October, 2020 | In Our Opinion
At the end of John Huston’s Maltese Falcon (1941), Detective Tom Polhaus (Ward Bond) picks up the heavy statue of the falcon and asks “What is it?” to which Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) meaningfully replies: “The, uh… stuff that dreams are made of.” There is no such...
by Richard Raskin | 3 October, 2020 | Film History, Filmmaking, Screenwriting
Robert Riskin (left) and Frank Capra (right). According to a story often told, Frank Capra gave a magazine interview in the late 1930s, going on about the ‘Capra touch’ in such award-winning films as It Happened One Night (1934) and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936),...